Consequent sessions and panel discussions during the day deliberated on topics such as, “Mapping products and processes of manufacturing, to new age technologies in Cyber Security”, “Compliance and infrastructure requirements of the manufacturing sector for Cyber Security” and “Cost of Poor Security”.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India said, “The cyber ecosystem is expected to become a trillion dollar industry in the next few years. The concept of virtualization has become embedded into our system and is being driven completely by software. As per estimates, 98% of systems today are being driven by software and this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. Hetrogeneity of devices used today makes the system vulnerable. The scenario today is such that there is a huge gap between the rate of technology innovation and security implementation. We therefore need to handle innovations in a manner that is congenial to the ecosystem.”

Stating that the sector had to be treated as a special sector with special engagement, Shri Gulshan Rai added, “This sector is a special sector and requires special engagement especially as far as the issue of privacy is concerned. A multi-stakeholder arrangement is what is needed if we have to address the issues of the system. We need to create a framework to cooperate between the industry, academia and government in respect to sharing of information, providing the expertise to investigate the incident and also create the technology to prevent it. Authorization, Authentication and Complexity are the three factors that describe the state of the industry today. All stakeholders need to work together to find appropriate technologies to enable us to use the single cyber space and single internet in a safe and secure manner.”

Delivering a special address, Shri. Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of IT,BT and S&T and Large and Medium Scale Industries, “Achieving cyber resilience involves compliance, meeting all infrastructure requirements, good practices and risk management that is supported by the right security strategy and technologies. The importance of cyber security cannot be overstated. It is an integral part of information technology systems. Cyber security strategies should be secure, vigilant and resilient and fully integrated into organizations information technology strategy right from the start. It is a fact that while we require around one million cyber security professionals in the country, we only have around fifty thousand today. So this is definitely an opportunity. The Government of Karnataka is keen on promoting emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Robotics etc. and will extend all necessary support to the industry.”

In his address, Shri. Sanjay Mojoo, Vice President, Pointnext Global Centre Bangalore, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India said, “We are at a critical juncture where we are conducting business digitally which is offering lots of benefits such as agility, efficiency and transparency but at the same time there are lots of risks and vulnerabilities. With unprecedented use of internet, we are connecting shop floor machines to the supplier but that leads to threats such as data threats, intellectual property compromise, threats related to programs and controls etc. Industry leaders must frame policies to scale up awareness which includes training of personnel and risk assessment of possible threats. Efforts must be put in to ensure that the right personnel are hired.”

In his address, Shri. Yogesh Andlay, Founder, Nucleus Software & Polaris Financial Technology, said, “Being aware that security today does not apply only to physical security but digital as well, where systems are protected from unauthorized access is critical. Awareness has to be created at the design stage and imbibed into the development stage itself because putting it in subsequent stages will be impractical. We need to develop processes and systems so that we are constantly ready to respond to disasters.”

The common sentiment that was echoed across panel discussions was that Automation, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are next generation opportunities and there is an urgent need to develop corresponding cyber security technologies especially since academia currently does not have the bandwidth to impart the necessary curriculum. They also suggested that startups with expertise in artificial intelligence, IoT and Machine Learning could collaborate with established corporates to explore cyber security solutions.